Anyone who has ever hot-footed it barefoot across the beach on a sunny day walks away with a greater understanding of just how much heat sand can retain. That ability is expected to play a vital role in the future, as technology involving heated sand becomes part of the answer … [continued]
Research Looks at How Strategies To Reduce Emissions in Agriculture Lead to Benefits in Health, Socioeconomics, and More The Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) has launched a new catalyzer — and it is changing the way you think about your food. Catalyzers are two- to three-year seed research … [continued]
There are lots of people who think it does no good to electrify things like cars and home heating equipment if the electricity they use comes from coal-fired thermal generating stations. After all, it is widely understood that coal plants create more carbon emissions than any other thermal generation technology. … [continued]
Polymer Scientist Applies Scientific Method To Solve Greatest Environmental Challenges While Making Lives Better Kat Knauer enjoyed science classes as a young girl but her understanding that science could be used as an instrument for good was solidified when a beloved family member grew ill. Her childhood dog, Penny, was … [continued]
Collaboration With Parallel Systems Quantifies Benefits of Autonomous, Battery-Electric Rail Vehicles For more than a century, American freight trains—responsible for moving a fifth of the nation’s cargo—have run nearly exclusively on carbon-based fuels. But that could change in the coming decade, as railways eye ambitious federal clean-energy goals that call for investment … [continued]
New Approach to Transmission Planning Links Renewable Energy Zones to Major Load Centers via Longer, High-Voltage Transmission A new approach to grid planning could make it possible to power your home with the nation’s best and lowest-cost wind and solar energy, no matter where you live. Researchers at the National … [continued]
An NREL Study Shows That Grid Upgrades Are Needed for eVTOL Charging, But On-Site Generation and Storage Can Help Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft might quickly move passengers over mountains or float them across urbanscapes. But first, an important consideration for these flying batteries is where they will … [continued]
Schnabel and Ocean Energy May Be Young, but Both Can Help Fight Climate Change Most kids who grew up in chilly, snow-prone areas remember the dreaded five-day rule: After five snow days savoring hot chocolate and chucking snowballs, any extra had to be traded for precious summer vacation days. Alec … [continued]
USDA Partnership, National Network, and Information Hub Support Timeliness of On-Site Wind Energy Deployment The renewable energy spotlight is turning toward distributed wind. Increased reliability and affordability, combined with funding and incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, have given rise to an unprecedented opportunity for … [continued]
NREL Links Rapidly Evolving Photovoltaic Module Technologies With Potential Reliability Impacts Historically, photovoltaic (PV) modules have demonstrated high reliability, making them a dependable and growing part of global decarbonization efforts. PV module technology also has a history of iteration and evolution over time, with potential impacts for module reliability. With … [continued]
